Sisters and Brothers in the Lord

I just want to express myself about how grateful I am to be in the middle of true believers of Christ in this Multiply (specific) and in the world (general). I never met any of them, I never knew them before, I don't even know their age, status, job, family, etc. But I feel homey. With their presence around me, I feel safe. They guide my walk in Christ, they teach me a lot about Word of God, they rebuke me when I am in wrong, they encourage me when I am tired, they help me when I am in needy.

I am a blessed man, I have many sisters and brothers in the Lord all over the world. I am loved by my beautiful and wonderful sisters. I am also sharpened by my gentle and respectful brothers. They pray for me, they care about me, they love me so much and I love them too. May the LORD bless you, my brethrens.

I have godly jealous about women. I always wonder, "How can they express themselves so openly? How can they be so pure, so honest?" Everytime something touch their hearts, they don't need any second thought, they just start to share it with others, they start to embrace each others, and they start to encourage each others. Their mind is so simple and they are easily moved by their heart. When they are happy, sad, troubled, depressed, etc they can't hide it, they will go and share with others. If they just want to be heard, they will go to another women, for men can't listen. ^_^ And if they don't know what to do and need guidance, they will go to men and learn from them. It is their nature.

I now understand why apostle Paul said that woman should learn in quietness and full submission. He didn't permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a men, she must be silent (1 Timothy 2:11-12). Now I see that Bible proved itself to be true. Maybe the women themselves even don't know the reason why Paul said like that, but in fact, they are doing exactly what Paul said.

I have a lot of sisters and everytime I visit their site, I never saw any of them arguing about Bible. I never saw them teaching people about doctrines, theologies, etc, about "is christmas 25 december?" "which Bible is correct?" "what is doctrine of salvation", yada yada. What I always see from their site is "beautiful God" "be thankful" "good morning" "greeting" "have a blessed day" "listen to God" "Be like Jesus" "Jesus center of my joy" "Jesus is great" "prayer in faith", and many other beautiful messages. They are more practical than men. Everytime their heart is touched by the Word, they start to put it into practice, their fingers start typing, words by words flow from their heart and then in short moment of wonder, one masterpiece has been finished typed. They even don't know that they have composed and written many masterpieces. For them it is just a feeling, but for we who read it, we began to wonder, what an insight and deep wisdom they have and we start praising the name of the Lord, Jesus Christ. How blessed are you, women. Thank you so much, my beloved sisters.

They just care less about doctrines and theologies. What they always want to do is sharing and sharing. They share a lot, they like to share to others what God has ministered to their heart and I just praise God again and again because of what He has done through my beloved sisters. Jesus said, "Yes; have you never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings you have perfected praise? (Matthew 21:16). If even from the mouth of babes and sucklings, perfect praise can come out, I will not argue if from these women's mouth the beautiful messages start to flow and it contains full of blessing and heartfelt stories, prayers, poems, songs, etc; and people are blessed and touched because they speak from the very depth of their heart. I truly truly blessed to have you, sisters.

And from my experiences, everytime I start to see women try to teach doctrinal issue, they become imbalanced because they put more their feeling than their thoughts in it. They are easily lost and get tempered because the first thing they do when somebody argue with them is they put every argument as an attack or insult to their personal, not to their doctrines. They can't separate between thought and feeling, they mixed it together. It is no use to argue with women in doctrinal issues and it is no use for the women to be involved in doctrinal debate. It is just not their nature, their parts. My sisters, please avoid doctrinal issues, unless you want to learn more and you have prepared yourself and fully equipped.

Though, I would suggest and prefer if you just read your Bible and share with us what God has ministered to you. If you really want to understand something about doctrinal issues, please find men that you are convinced that they love Jesus more than their own life and learn from them. The great difference between true believers and hypocrites is in the wisdom, is it wisdom from God or wisdom from men.

The true men of God will make everything as simple as possible so that even the unlearned will be understand, they will use parables, stories, etc. It needs wisdom from above to understand Bible. Jesus is the best example of greatest Teacher in the world, He spoke with wisdom and in parables, so that everybody who humbled will understand, but those who depend on their own understanding will confuse. Praise the Lord.

Hypocrites and teacher of law, pharisees will make everything complicated, give you more confusion than understanding. For they themselves are confused with Bible. God's Word is like a pearl, God will not give His Word to the dogs and pigs, so that they will not trample it. It needs wisdom from God to understand Bible. If you are not born again but you tried to read Bible, I can guarantee you that the Bible will just be a normal book, or even worse, it contains full of contradiction.

God hid this Truth from the wise and learned and only show it to the little children. Who will always ask help from their Father to teach them. It need humble heart to understand, the heart who will always hit their knee and ask guidance from Holy Spirit, not relying on their own understanding everytime they want to understand Bible. Find the good disciples of Christ, do risk your eternity on somebody who are confuse himself. As a blind man lead another blind man, both of them will fall into the pit.

And please, my sisters. Do not ever start teaching about doctrines. Put your emotion on the right place, which is sharing your testimonies, sharing what God has done in your life, what God has ministered to you. Please obey what Paul said, that woman should learn in quietness and full submission. He didn't permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a men, she must be silent (1 Timothy 2:11-12). And I have explained to you about what this silent means.

I know sisters who only quote some verses from the Bible and they start to express the meaning of it beautifully and wonderfully. I just have godly jealous about how can they do that? How can they so innocent and honest to themselves and others, no wearing mask, no dual personality, just be themselves. And their honesty is shined through their writing. Everytime they see the verse that touch their heart, they will just take as it is, not trying to justify and fit their undestanding in it. If the verse is full of correction, rebuke, etc they will just try to fit themselves to the Word, not the Word to be fitted for themselves. They will not go from dictionary to dictionary to argue and to define the meaning. They themselves will explain it much better than any dictionaries in the world can express. They are blessed women. Please sisters, when you are not ready or you are not sure about the people who teach you, leave doctrinal issues.

In fact, the moment the women start to teach about doctrines and theologies, they have already lost. Paul with wisdom from God reminded the women, not to start teaching doctrinal issue, but to always learn in fully submission. When men start quarreling about words, women should interrupt, not with doctrinal issue, but with wisdom God has given unto her. Otherwise they will join the men and become more and more ungodly and ruin themselves (2 Timothy 2:14-16). I saw many of my beautiful sisters interrupted each time men argue about words, I believe that they don't even know the reason why they do it, they just moved by their heart to do that, but thing happen, they became the peacemaker. Is it not true, my beloved sisters? Do you know that you are great ambassador of Christ and peacemakers? ^_^

2 Timothy 2:14

Keep reminding them of these things. Warn them before God against quarreling about words; it is of no value, and only ruins those who listen.

I don't agree for a woman to study theologies or doctrines or pursuit bachelor or master degree in theology. In the church, women should share their testimonies, not her thought about some specific doctrinal issues.

And I also have great admire to my beloved brothers. Their faith is so well-founded and they have stiff neck. It would be very difficult to deal with men who already grounded in doctrines. Even though their doctrines have many flaws, they can not be moved unless they have found another doctrines which is better. Men's life are full of doctrines. Our brain plays great roles. Men are more theoretical than women. Men always want proofs, they want to see first before they believe. Women are so innocent and simple, men are so complicated and planned.

Men are senseless, men use their brain more than their heart. They can talk about doctrines for hours and hold tight to the doctrines they believe are the most correct ones. I would not be surprise if in the kingdom of God, there are more women and children than men. But I will not be surprised too, if men will be trusted by God with more cities in heaven than women, because once men are convicted in their heart, they will stick to the end, they will not conform. When their heart is settled, they will start bringing more people to God than any woman can do. Men are fighters, they will not easily satisfied. Men are hunters, they will always look for "food" and always hungry for soul.

Men are difficult to be conformed. To win them, we need wisdom from God. Just a simple heartfelt message won't work. They must be preached hard messages. They must be convicted with Word of God deeply first before they can humble themselves before the Lord. Honestly, I don't know how to preach to men, except by using logic and wisdom. They are just indifferent, unmoved. They limited themselves, they depend on their own understanding and believe that they know better than others. So, my brethrens, if you see me arguing about doctrinal issues, you better know that I am trying to preach to men, not women. Though women can also join and learn. But I just afraid when they see we are quarreling about word, they will become ungodly. I, personally don't like to argue, but in most case, I can't escape that to bring men to Christ. Paul also discussed daily with men until they convinced. I just learn to be a good servant of God.

2 Corinthians 10:4-5

The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

Men, why are we so full of pride? Why can we learn from women? Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 18:3).

I was a proud man before, I always said, "men don't cry" "men can't be easily moved" and because of that, I was not able to be honest with God, it needed long way to convict me. I needed to do experiment with my precious life, do trial and error with my life, fall again and again, but still, as long as I still use my brain and pride, I just mess my life more and more. Men are truly genius in textbook, but men are also stupid concerning faith. We always ask for proofs, but God can't be seen, how can I prove you? Can't you see and listen the testimonies from Christians who have encountered Christ, their lives changed drastically?

I have a friend, a male, everything I try to preach to him. He just said, "I know, I know all about it" and if I shared my testimonies that he don't know, he just said, "good for you. I rejoice for you, let's see what will happen to you in the next 5 years, how high God will raise you up." He just always wants for proofs. When I use wisdom, he began to think but then when something don't agree with his doctrines, he start to avoid me. "That's your faith, this is my faith. You go on your own, I go on my own." If I am convinced I go to heaven, you to the where? Can your doctrines give you deep conviction? Blessed assurance? Do you see things change around you? Have you been like Jesus? He just can't answer, but mock me. "Are you holy? Are you righteous?" "Can you control your body?" I will just invite him, "Come and see how I live, I will not pretend."

He brainwashed himself that if he can't stick to his faith, he already lost. He can't humble himself, he doesn't want to be proved wrong. His pride is too much. Even though he has no conviction about Holy Spirit, about Christian life, even though he can't fell Jesus in his life, even though he continue sinning, he only want to keep hold on the doctrines of "Once saved forever saved" "predestined", etc. Doctrines that please their itching ears, but abandon many other verses from Bible.

Hebrews 10:26-27

If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.

Bible said, "Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says (James 1:22). My brothers, what use of your doctrines? What use if you know about salvation, repentance, faith, etc but you do not put it into practice. Don't you have godly jealous to our sisters? If you visit their sites, we can easily get their feeling toward God. Do your doctrines can express the beauty of God like them? Everytime we talked about doctrines, in the end of the day, we just argue each other, nobody get saved, we just become more and more ungodly and more confuse. Men, learn from women about honesty, about faith like a little children.

I learned a lot recently from women, not from men. Everytime I go to men's site, it is always full of doctrinal stuff, they are brilliant, they are genius, they are the scribe, etc. But they are stupid in God's eyes. Doctrines + faith is a closed system. If doctrines failed them, faith play great roles, if faith failed them, doctrines play great role. They deceived and deceiving each other. They are having form of godliness but denying its power. This is the strongest point and also the weakest point from men. Once they are convinced, they will be difficult to fall away.

For the same reason, since the creation of the world, God used men to speak His Word and tell the people what He is about to do. Men are difficult to be won to Christ, but when they are ready, nothing can stop them. They are warriors, going for the battle to defend the women and children.

The enemies will always attack the weak first, as the serpent also deceived Eve first and became sinner, but she will be restored through childbearing --- if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety (1 Timothy 2:15). Sisters, learn from brothers about firmness and brothers, learn from sisters about love, honesty and faith. Then, we will be perfect. We will have strong faith, strong foundation, strong mind, but also full of joy, full of love, full of compassion, full of mercy. To be honest, men indeed love to cry, they just ashamed to show it publicly.

If the men are slumbered, women and children are the easy targets and prey of enemies. Men of God, raise up!!! Why we are still being idled and busibodied with doctrines and theologies. Why we need to argue about which denomination is the correct one? The fact that you said, "I follow Luther" "I follow Calvin" "I follow Wesley" "I follow Moody" is the same situation as what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 3 "I follow Paul" "I follow Apollos" "I follow Cephas", and Bible said that once we do that, we are carnal, we are worldly, we still need to drink milk not eat hard food. If we still drink milk, we are not a man yet, we still a boy.

What our sisters and those little children need from us is a man of God, who can stand and protect them. Let's sharpen our sword of Spirit with Word of God, strengthen our Shield with Faith, put Helmet of Salvation, Belt of Truth, Breastplate of Righteousness and our feet with readiness to preach the Gospel of Peace.

Teach them to be ready, to have the unity of faith, to always test the spirits, to prove all things and hold fast to the good, to use their talents and share them with others. If they have talents in singing, playing instrument, writing poem, etc; encourage them to start using it for the glory of God. What good from man is LEADERSHIP. Women can't be leaders, no matter how talented they are, they must submit to men as a wife must submit to her husband. And men should love women as they love themselves so that you are worthy to earn respect from them. If you are a boy, but already acted like a ruler, who wants to submit to you?

There is a story about a fool and unwise man who want to be a ruler. Nobody wanted to listen to him, everybody despised him. Do you know what he did? He will go to the infants, babes, and little children and gave them candy everytime they said "O, you are a wise king". The children did it just for candies and when no candy left, they will leave too. Nobody will respect you if you are still a child and unwise, my brothers. Be a man, man of integrity who stand in the gap between God and the people, to bring Revival to the dry bones, to bring Restoration to the land.

In the old time, when Israelites moved across the Jordan. The Levites brought the ark of covenant with fear and trembles, they moved in front of the multitude of people and the people of Israel needed to consecrate themselves. Then God did miracles for them, the water from uphill stopped flowing and it became a dry ground. The Levites carrying the ark then stood firm in the middle of the river while the Israelites passed by until the whole nation had completed the crossing on dry ground (Joshua 3).

God needs a man who can fill the gap, who can stand in the middle so that the people will be kept safe and far from enemies. Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me (Isaiah 6:8)!" God needs a man of integrity who can't be moved by anything (money, power, women, idols, etc), a man who fear the LORD and committed to Him. The man who are humbled and have great compassions and burdens about people, have self-control. Because when they can't stand firm, the water from uphill will start to flow back and cover all of the people and they all die. God is looking for that kind of person.

God just need a man, not a super-man. The weaker and humbler the man, the more God will use him greatly. He doesn't want anybody take His glory. He is a jealous God. He is looking for a man who know that he is nothing, but has a great and living God. The battle belongs to God. He is the One who goes to the Battle and fight for us. He just need a man to stand between He and the people to tell them what He will do next. What we need to do is just be still and do not interrupt God doing His mighty works on the people who have fear the Lord.

My brothers and my sisters, if you see situation around you, and they are in great needy, so much problems and troubles, why don't you start to ask God to deal with you, make and mold you as a clay in the Potter's hand to be His instrument and to be able to fill the gap. The more you want to be selfless, not selfish, to be like Jesus, the greater power and access you will have to store in heaven. Men can be men of God, women can be prayer warriors who support from behind. Do you know what the women do when their husbands go for works? She manage her household well and pray for the husband. Women, you need to pray for all of us and share and strengthen our brethrens. Men, you should try to stand firm, go to battle like a mighty warrior, who conform no more and be God's instruments to slay the enemies, the devils who captives many lost souls. Go and bring them back home.

But the question is: Do you love Jesus? Can you answer that? Do you love Jesus? Can you answer that, my friends? Do you love Jesus?

Jesus asked Simon Peter three times "Simon son of John, do you truly love me? "Take care of my sheep". Jesus loves His sheep more than His life. He will not give any of them to those who careless, to those who have itching ears, to those who have wicked thought, to those who are not humbled. You must love Jesus with all your heart, your soul, your mind, your strength before you start teaching others. Their souls are so precious, their eternity will bring party in heaven, angels in heaven will shout and rejoice every one soul repented and come back home. Do you love Jesus? If you do, please do not lord over them, but serve them. Afterall, children should not have to save up for their parents, but parents for their children (2 Corinthians 12:14). Be their shepherd, not their butcher. God bless you all